Sunday, May 20, 2012

CD Review: “Big Red” by Soulstack

Get on your funky feet. Jon Knight is singing some penetrating blues, right the hell now!. The front man, vocalist and grove guitarist for Toronto, Ontario blue band Soulstack. There guys sound like they just burst out of the belly of the Mississippi Delta, in a moon shine stock car and are heading to Chicago. This is swampy “Blues-iana” swamp blues and southern soul. Big Red is their debut album. Formed from the ashes of Toronto’s long time blues band Wickens-Knight, they sport multiple award winning members Jonathan Knight, Tom Bona on vocals and drums and Mark Wessenger adding vocals and keys. Josh Knight is on bass and vocals.

This album is so much more than a barroom blues band. the music – one cover of the standard “In My Time Of Dying”, and the rest originals written by Knight and Wessenger. The vocals are reminiscent blues and blue eyed soul singers from Delbert McClinton to John Hiatt with a pinch of Little Feat thrown in for spice.

The vocal harmonies will just astound you, it’s like a party breaking out on every tune. The intensity, the urgency is in your lap. The guitar licks are just perfect, more riff driven than given to bombastic solos and the drum keeps the motor humming. The keys, whether playing love shack piano or bluesy Wurlitzer and Hammond organ are tasteful and glue it all together.

Soulstack “Stone Cold Man”

It all makes for a goodtime and a danceable blast. We can only hope these guys make it south of the border and show the hot time to be found in Canada when Soulstack takes the stage. if you’re looking for some soul shaken blues to liven up your summer, well look no further than Soulstacks Big Red.

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Alan S. Keesler

About Me

I was born in Pomona, California at a very young age. I had a pretty normal childhood…or I was a pretty normal child hood if mom is telling the story. I was a paperboy and washed cars. I was a soda fountain jock-jerk and a manic mechanic but my first real job was as a labor organizer in a maternity ward. Then, because of the misjudgment of a judge I spent nearly 10 years in the service of our country mostly on KP duty. Our country sure turns out a lot of dirty dishes. I am a past master at pots and pans. They eventually recognized my real talent and let me wander around some very unfriendly places carrying a big radio that didn’t work.

Along the way I took up the bass guitar, jotting down stories, electronic engineering and earned a degree in advanced criminal activities. I spent most of my adult life, if you can call it that, working in the I.T. industry, which I was particularly suited for since we worked in rooms with no windows. On and off I taught in colleges, universities and reform schools as a student teacher…

I like smog, traffic, kinky people, car trouble, noisy neighbors, and crowded seedy bars where I have been known to quote Raymond Chandler as pickup lines. I have always been a voracious reader, everything from the classics, to popular fiction, history to science but I have a special place in my heart for crime fiction, especially hard-boiled detective fiction and noir. I write a book and music review blog for all genres at The Dirty Lowdown. And another dedicated to Crime Fiction and all things Noir called Crimeways. It’s named after the magazine that appeared in the Kenneth Fearing classic, The Big Clock. There I write scholarly reviews of the classic hard boiled, noir and crime fiction books from the 20's through today. Mostly I drool over the salacious pictures on the covers.